Those wondering if Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will keep his job after a ruling party election next month should consider this: actor Tom Cruise says he's a great guy and a good singer.
Cruise's opinion, of course, hardly matters to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members and lawmakers who will vote in the Sept. 20 party poll.
But the fact that Koizumi took time this week from a busy schedule to meet Cruise and croon a duet of Elvis Presley's hit tune I want you, I need you, I love you was a perfect symbol of how much image and personality now matter in Japanese politics, long dominated by party barons huddling in back rooms.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The two telegenic men traded compliments after the chat, with the bearded Cruise calling the lion-maned Koizumi "very charismatic" and the prime minister saying the movie star was "really cool."
Behind the change in how politics works is a crumbling of the power of the once-mighty factions that dominated the workings of the conservative LDP for much of its nearly half-century rule.
The shift means the popular and media savvy Koizumi looks well placed to be re-anointed ahead of a general election which must take place by the middle of next year, even though his eccentric style and reform policies are anathema to many party heavyweights.
"Party factions are losing out to a new type of politics ushered in by Koizumi -- politics where public opinion counts for a hell of a lot more," said a foreign political analyst.
"The impact of personality, and to a lesser extent, policies, on the wider public is now more important."
Nationalist Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, a former LDP lawmaker often spoken of as a potential future prime minister, has built his popularity on an image as a forceful leader.
Even Shizuka Kamei, 66, a gravely voiced old-style LDP faction leader and harsh critic of Koizumi, has had a make-over, hiring a consultant to restyle his hair, suits and ties.
Koizumi's rivals want to abandon his policy of reining in the runaway public spending that has kept the LDP in power while inflating Japan's debt to the worst among advanced nations.
Local LDP members' love affair with Koizumi has been cooled by his painful reforms and speculation has simmered that conservative party barons would unite to topple him.
Political analysts warn an upset cannot be ruled out.
But the outlook for a coup dimmed this week after the biggest bloc in the faction-riven party failed to decide which, if any, of three would-be candidates from its ranks to back.
The LDP top post usually guarantees the premiership by virtue of the LDP-led ruling camp's grip on parliament.
Former prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, nominal chief of a 100-member LDP parliamentary faction, said on Thursday his group would delay a decision until Sept. 2.
That raised the prospect that all three Hashimoto faction wannabes, including former transport minister Takao Fujii, might stand along with Kamei and perhaps another leader of a tiny bloc and a small faction member.
The factional disarray reflects the waning power of a party bloc founded by the late former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka.
Electoral reforms have undermined faction power as have shrinking tax revenues during a decade of economic stagnation.
So has voter disgust with a series of political scandals in the LDP.
"The old system is crumbling -- slowly but gradually," the foreign political analyst said. "The Koizumi model of personality and policy-led appeal to the public is gaining ascendance.
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